In electrical control systems, it is common practice to employ an electromagnetic relay having transfer switching contacts movable by a pivotal armature which is picked up when the electromagnet is energized and which is released when the electromagnet is deenergized. However, in many electromagnets the magnetic flux produced by the exciting coil is not efficiently used to attract the armature. In some relays, a considerable amount of the magnetic flux does not go through the armature when it is in its released position due to the fact that the permeance of the leakage flux path is not negligible in comparison to the permeance of the air gap between the faces of the armature and pole piece. Thus, the leakage flux results in decreasing the attraction or pulling force on the armature when the electromagnet is energized thereby producing a lesser amount of torque for a given amount of energizing current. It has been found that leakage flux losses may be reduced by employing a U-shaped electromagnetic core assembly. Further, to increase the attractive force acting on the armature without an increase in the energizing current, it is desirable to reduce the reluctance in the magnetic circuit, namely, in the air gap. It is quite obvious that one method of accomplishing this would be to locate the armature closer to the pole face of the electromagnetic assembly; however, in many instances this is not necessarily feasible or possible since the amount of armature movement or travel may become insufficient to properly actuate the transfer switching operation. Thus, it is desirable to improve the magnetic flux path by modifying the cooperative relationship of the electromagnetic structure without sacrificing the amount of armature movement and without adversely effecting the electrical, magnetic and mechanical operation of the relay.